Nobody knew what the music scene would look like last year due to the unfortunate introduction of Covid-19 and quarantining into our lives, but to a lot of people’s surprise, many artists were able to release full-length albums with no problems. In this post, I will be mentioning some of my favorite records from 2020.
アダンの風 (Windswept Adan)
Ichiko Aoba
Windswept Adan is the sixth studio album from female Japanese artist Ichiko Aoba. The album falls heavily on the chamber folk and singer/songwriter genres while bleeding into ambient as well. Each song feels like a deep dive into some unforeseen area of nature. Ichiko’s voice is a blending of lush and ethereal qualities, and the instrumentality compliments it nicely by being extremely minimal and unobtrusive.
Microphones in 2020
The Microphones
The Microphones are probably the best group to have adjusted to the nature of the pandemic media-wise. Microphones in 2020 was released as a live-stream on YouTube with thousands of people tuning in. It was unannounced and appeared out of nowhere. The release isn’t your typical album. It only features one song that’s around 40 minutes long and is accompanied by a video of Phil Elverum, the lead vocalist, flipping through some photos of his life. As is most of their music, the record is melancholic and gloomy. Phil’s worn-out vocals, raw acoustic guitar, and pounding drums create a hypnotic ambiance.
Charmed
DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ
Despite the group’s poor taste in album covers, Charmed is an exceptional House album that perfectly encapsulates the genre. DJ Sabrina the Teenage DJ is a UK group that focuses on Electronic Dance Music, specifically a genre called House. The album is an insane 3 hours long, but given the right mood and atmosphere, this record will hold you in a deep trance as 3 hours speed by. For me, this album is sort of an eye-roll because a lot of the songs feature samples from the tv show Sabrina the Teenage Witch which is where they get their name from, and the album artwork does not help at all. Due to that, Charmed feels like a record stuck in time from the late 90s to the early 2000s, which in combination with the record’s discoey nature makes for an interesting and fun experience.
Fetch the Bolt Cutters
Fiona Apple
Despite beginning her music career in 1996, this is only the fifth album to be released from critically acclaimed artist Fiona Apple. Fetch the Bolt Cutters is a hectic dive into the mind of one of Art Pop’s most groundbreaking artists. The album carefully blends scattering percussion, deep and strong vocals, and soft basslines. Due to Fiona’s critically acclaimed nature, many people had very high expectations for Fetch the Boltcutters and were disappointed to find out that the record was not too similar to her previous and more popular releases.